40mbps instead of 500mbps / Capped Speed / Fair Usage Policy

[jackie1001]

I have an issue with my virgin media broadband. I'm approx 4 months into my 500mbps contract and after the first month my speeds have dropped drastically from 500-560mbps to 43mbps. This i believe is a hard cap placed by virgin media as i am a heavy user. Downloading and Uploading 2-3TB a month. I edit YouTube videos and other media types.

There is 'nothing actually wrong' with my line or modem. I believe I have just been hit by virgin medias traffic management / fair usage policy. This has not been confirmed by virgin, but every time i call virgin, the first thing they look at or mention is my usage and they proceed to offer to upgrade me to 1gbps which wont help me been capped or send a technician out, which also will not help in my situation as there's nothing wrong with my equipment.

Over the last 3 months I have gone through phone calls and one technician came out and replaced my hub 5 for a hub 4 (not that, that would help in my case).

I'm at the end of my whits with all this and just want to cancel my contract without any penalty fees.

By the way, if you search 'virgin 40mbps' you will see other people in a similar situation.

What options do i have in this case? as i am not getting the speeds i am paying for.

[Client62]

The DOCSIS 3.1 Downstream channel is not connected.

Check for a local service issue on 0800 561 0061

[unisoft]

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@jackie1001 wrote:

Hi Carl, I have read the traffic management document. But on speaking to virgin they said they have the right to throttle traffic as its in my terms and conditions.

I have no other explanation for why my speeds are been consistently capped at 43mbps. I am connected by 2m long cat6 cable. if i leave it, and don't use the internet heavy, i am uncapped and able max out my 500mbps plan. Then shortly after hit by the cap again.

Can i ask are you on the 1gig plan? Maybe 1gig users are in a different classification.

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They reserve the right in emergencies where they may need to - legal insurance if need be. Generally though, there are no caps anymore. Those days long gone (and thank goodness). We've used 5Tb in a month before and not a whiff of speed reduction or caps, and that's all the way over time from 220 > 380 > 1gbps tiers.

You have some other issue going on like low SNR on each channel or power levels wrong and out of spec or possibly area utilisation or noise impacting speeds.....

[unisoft]

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@Client62 wrote:

The DOCSIS 3.1 Downstream channel is not connected.

Check for a local service issue on 0800 561 0061

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The SNR is too low on all the download channels too. For best connection stats, above 36db is best, though it will handle in most areas being down to 34db. Power levels are fine and upload channels are fine. As Client62 says, the DocSIS 3.1 channels need sorting as wrong.

[jackie1001]

Thanks for your replies. Im not super techie regarding power levels etc but im assuming if i have power issue or noise or line issues the speed will fluctuate and i will get various speeds such as 40s 60s 100s back to 50s etc. When i do a speed test or download a file it shoots straight to 43ish mbps and stays there and holds at that speed. That's why i believe there is some sort of limit or cap on my account. 4 months into my contract and no fix or solution.

I'm entertaining the idea of subscribing to another ISP and just having two lines until i can some how get released from this contract 😞

[jackie1001]

I recorded the speeds live so you see what i see here

[IPFreely]

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@jackie1001 wrote:

Thanks for your replies. Im not super techie regarding power levels etc but im assuming if i have power issue or noise or line issues the speed will fluctuate and i will get various speeds such as 40s 60s 100s back to 50s etc. When i do a speed test or download a file it shoots straight to 43ish mbps and stays there and holds at that speed. That's why i believe there is some sort of limit or cap on my account. 4 months into my contract and no fix or solution.

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Packet loss can look like that. You need a technician that'll check and make sure there's nothing wrong with the connection between you and the cabinet and they need to escalate to the networks team if they can't find the issue so that they can check out the network. Could be one of a number of things if it's impacting more than yourself.

[VMUser1812]

Now what I do find interesting is that nobody seem to have found the results of the SamKnows tests as of the fourth post on this thread, on any way worthy of comment!

 On face value, it is implying that the speed to the device is roughly five times faster than the speed to the hub! Which is obviously rubbish, no?

Now yes, I do know that the speed tests on SamKnows are asynchronous, but for it to be so far out, would, surely, call into question the accuracy or reliability of the the SamKnows tests, as implemented on the VM hubs, no?

So if we can’t, realistically rely on what the SamKnows test are saying (and let’s be fair, we have no way of knowing just how good or badly, these tests have been integrated into the hubs’ firmware), then it must call into question all the posts on here whereas a forum member (usually a VIP), who has asked the complainant to ‘run a SamKnows test’; see a figure of 1100 or so and hence declare ‘well your connection is definitely fine so the issue must be on your end’! Don’t think it’s quite as simple as that!

[jackie1001]

@VMUser1812 I think while the speedtest was running the 'cap' was released while the device test was running. As its not always at 43mbps. Rare occasion i do get full speed, very rarely tho.

[jackie1001]

UPDATE: Virgin have acknowledge that i am getting less then the minimum guaranteed speeds and they have said if they cant fix it by the end of the month. I can be released from my contract without termination fee.

[jackie1001]

Update: Virgin was unable to fix my issue and have allowed me to exit my contract early without termination. Only thing that's anonying is they want one months notice so they can get an extra months payment 😕... But whatever happy to be done with it.

 

We've just had fttp laid down on our street so excited to get that. 900mbps up and down 😬